Butcher, 1991 - Raf Simons
Corpo, Raf Simons’s 1991 graduation project at SHIVKV in Genk, Belgium, consists of seven cabinets, each given a name, much like the pieces in a fashion collection. Five of these original works are presented by Pulp Galerie.
Among them, Butcher stands out for its striking visual presence, sophisticated construction and singular combination of materials. Both elegant and unsettling, the piece subverts the conventions of traditional furniture to create a deeply anthropomorphic object, poised between furniture, body and clothing.
The structure rests on long legs reminiscent of a mannequin’s, supporting three shelves. The body of the cabinet thus becomes its skeleton, while a chainmail covering wraps around it like a garment. Open at the front, the metal mesh can be folded down to conceal the upper shelves, without ever closing completely. It partially obscures the cabinet’s contents while allowing their shapes to remain visible, establishing a subtle interplay between exposure and concealment, protection and vulnerability.
The most revealing detail, however, lies in the central shelf, whose notches are designed to hold butcher’s knives. This feature establishes a direct connection between the piece’s name, its metallic covering and the professional environment to which it refers. Traditionally associated with medieval armour, chainmail is also used in butchery to protect the body against cuts. Raf Simons thus reinterprets a functional protective garment, transforming it into a piece of furniture imbued with symbolic significance.
The treatment of materials further reinforces this ambiguity. Wooden shelves, complemented by a glass surface and a steel lid, bring together materials with distinct properties and functions. The overall composition evokes a storage cabinet, a piece of professional equipment and a clothed silhouette all at once. The butcher’s vocabulary (knives, chainmail and raw materials) introduces an almost violent dimension, contrasting with the delicacy of the structure and the elegance of its proportions.
With Butcher, Raf Simons explores the tension between the sensuality of form and the harshness of its imagery. The cabinet seems to protect its own body behind a metallic second skin, while retaining the possibility of revealing what it conceals. This duality between protection and threat, interior and exterior, structure and covering, reflects the founding principle of Corpo: to consider each object as a body, endowed with a skeleton and a skin, which can be dressed, adorned or protected.
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